Buying table tennis balls should be an easy task. They’re just small balls which make a “ping-pong” sound, right?

Well, not quite. There’s a lot of choice available and a huge variance in quality.

There has been two significant changes to table tennis balls over the past 15 years. In 2000, the size of the ball was increased from 38mm to 40mm. The size was increased to make it more appealing to spectators. The larger ball is slower and spins less, which in theory should mean longer rallies, but I’m not sure this has ever been proven.

Then in 2014/2015, the material used to make table tennis balls changed from celluloid to a non-flammable plastic (often referred as “plastic balls”, “poly balls” or “40+ balls”). However, the celluloid balls are still available to buy and are often cheaper and more durable than new new plastic balls.

So, what balls should you buy? In this blog post I share my experience of the new plastic balls and give recommendations of which balls to buy. I also explain why I’m still using celluloid balls during my coaching sessions, plus a great tip on where to buy lots of celluloid balls for a cheap price. Lastly, I give recommendations on which balls to buy for casual play.

Transition period

We’re still in a period of transition with the new plastic balls. The quality of the first plastic balls wasn’t great. Balls weren’t perfectly round, they would break very easily and it was harder to generate the same level of spin as the celluloid balls.

But the quality of the plastic balls is now gradually improving. Manufactures keep testing and iterating. Some brands of plastic balls are starting to play like the celluloid balls they replaced.

There are still issues with balls breaking quite easily. And there is still a big variance in quality between different brands. It could be another two to three years before we get a really consistent range of plastic balls.

There was a lot of concern that the new plastic ball would have a big impact on the game. But this hasn’t really happened. Professionals are still playing in the same attacking way. And after three years of using the plastic ball, the best players in the world are still the same. At the amateur level, I don’t think most players have noticed much of a difference at all.

What are the best plastic balls?

I’ll start with a disclaimer. I haven’t tried all the different plastic balls. So if a ball isn’t on my list below, it doesn’t mean it’s a bad ball. It may be that I haven’t tried it.

Nittaku Premium

This is by far my favourite plastic table tennis ball. I first played with this ball in a tournament in 2016 and instantly liked it. It felt very much like playing with the old celluloid balls again. This season all teams at my club (Cambridge-Parkside) have been using Nittaku Premium table tennis balls in league matches. The bounce is consistent, you can easily generate spin and they don’t seem to break as often as other plastic balls. If you want to buy competition quality balls, I fully recommend Nittaku Premium.

Buy in UK | Buy in USA

Xushaofa 40+

Xushaofa isn’t a familiar table tennis brand, but their plastic balls have become popular because they were probably the best quality of the first batch of plastic balls. They are still very good to play with, although other mainstream table tennis brands have caught up with Xushaofa now. The Xushaofa 40+ is very close in quality to the Nittaku Premium ball. Either ball is a good choice.

Buy in UK | Buy in USA

Butterfly G40+

I bought a batch of Butterfly plastic balls (made in China) in 2015 and wasn’t really happy with the quality. They felt very soft and slow to play with. However, the new Butterfly G40+ balls (made in Germany) are a big improvement. The ball is harder, faster and more durable. They do seem to make a slight metallic sound when the ball hits the table, but you soon get used to this.

Buy in UK | Buy in USA

Stiga Optimum

Our club used this ball during the 2015/2016 league season. At the time I was fairly happy with the quality of the ball, as it seemed better than many of the other plastic balls I had tried. The speed of the ball was decent and the durability was ok. I think the three balls above heave the edge of the Stiga Optimum, but it’s still one of the better plastic balls.

Buy in UK

Donic 40+

I have played less with this ball compared to the other four on my list, but when I have played with it I’ve been impressed with the quality. It has a consistent bounce and plays with a good speed. It’s a perfectly decent ball.

Buy in UK | Buy in USA

Training balls

Here’s my shock revelation. During my coaching sessions and when I train with my robot, I still use celluloid balls.

The main reason? Cost! It’s still more expensive to buy plastic balls compared to celluloid. When I buy a 100+ balls in a go, the cost difference can be quite significant. And since training balls tend to get broken and trodden on much more frequently, it doesn’t make much financial sense to buy the more expensive and lower quality plastic balls.

In an ideal world I would train and coach with the same balls used in competitive matches. But since there is still a large variation in the quality of plastic balls, there is no guarantee that if you train with one brand of plastic ball, it will help you prepare to play with a different brand of plastic ball.

So I’m sticking with celluloid until there is more consistency with plastic training balls and the cost is more affordable. I actually believe the plastic balls will end up playing very similar to celluloid balls, so it’s not a huge issue to use celluloid balls for multi-ball training and coaching sessions.

The balls I use, and very much recommend, are the Cornilleau Pro table tennis balls (buy in UK | buy in USA). You can buy 72 balls for a really good price and they are very durable. I have balls which are three or four years old and have been hit thousands of times and they still haven’t cracked.

If you are dead set on buying plastic training balls and don’t mind the extra cost, here are some options:

UK

• Butterfly Easy Ball 40+
• Xushaofa Premium 40+ training balls
• Yasaka 1 Star Plastic Table Tennis Training Balls

USA

• Butterfly Easy Ball 40+
• Joola Poly Pro training balls
• YinHe 1 Star 40+ Table Tennis Balls

Balls for casual play

If you only play for a bit of fun, then it’s not essential that you play with the best quality balls. Equally, you should avoid the really, really cheap balls. These don’t have a very good bounce and break easily.

If you just want to buy a few balls, with good durability, a consistent bounce and a reasonable price, any of these will do the job…

Recommended balls (UK)

• Joola Training table tennis balls
• Butterfly Skills table tennis balls
• Cornilleau Expert table tennis balls

Recommended balls (USA)

• Stiga 3-Star table tennis balls
• Joola Training table tennis balls

BEST-SELLERS: Also, take a look at my list of the most popular table tennis balls purchased by readers of my website.

For casual play it doesn’t really matter if you play with celluloid or the new plastic balls. How can you tell the difference between a celluloid ball and a new plastic ball? A celluloid ball will have “40mm” printed on it. The new plastic ball will have “40mm+” printed on it. The most important thing is that you have a ball to play with in the first place!

Where can you buy table tennis balls?

You can buy table tennis balls from any dedicated table tennis retailer. Take a look at my list of table tennis retailers to find a retailer near you…

• UK
• USA
• Europe
• Asia
• Australia

You can sometimes find quite good deals for table tennis balls on Amazon (UK site | USA site), so worth checking here too.

The post Guide to the best table tennis balls appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

All of the time I’ve been coaching, there has been one problem I’ve been asked about more than any other. The problem? How to return a sidespin serve.

The player will usually say something like this…

“There’s this player who does this sideserve and I just can’t control the spin. The ball just keeps shooting off the table or it goes high and then he smashes the ball past me. I just don’t know what to do. I must have lost so many points from this serve. Help!”

If you have this problem, rest assured you are not alone. Most players have faced this problem at some point during their development.

In this blog post I will explain what I think is the easiest way of returning a sidespin serve. I have also created a video (scroll down the page to view) which demonstrates what to do, and what not to do.

Why sidespin serves are challenging

Let’s start with why sidespin serves are challenging. I remember one match I played many years ago, in my first ever season in London. It was a handicap match. I was in the lowest division and playing a top division player. He had a devilish sidespin serve and I really struggled.

What I found difficult was knowing exactly what spin was on the ball. Was it side-backspin, side-topspin or pure sidespin? Was it spinning left to right or right to left? And how much spin? Was it heavy sidespin or light sidespin? Should I hit it, push it, block it? There just seemed to be too many options. Too many things to think about. I had no confidence in what would happen to the ball when I tried to return it.

Because of this uncertainty, I returned nervously and passively. I tended to just prod at the ball. I’m sure you can guess what happened – the ball flew everywhere, long, wide, high. I don’t recall returning one serve.

After the match one of my teammates unhelpfully commented that I should have tried to return his serve better. Well duh, I know that. But how? At the time I didn’t have a clue what to do.

How to return a sidespin serve

So let’s get straight to the point. If prodding nervously at the ball is the worst possible way to return a sidespin serve, what is the best way to return a sidespin serve?

Different coaches will say different things. Some coaches will tell you to work with the spin on the ball, angle your bat and guide the ball back low and in an awkward position for your opponent to attack.

This is certainly an option, but a very advanced option. I think you need to have years of playing experience, great touch and a thorough understanding of exactly what spin is on the ball to return the ball consistently this way. The margin of error is small. If you get your bat angle wrong, you’ll mess it up.

For me, the easiest way to return a sidespin serve is to play a controlled topspin stroke. By adding your own spin to the ball (topspin), you override the server’s spin (sidespin) to a certain extent, so there is less chance the ball will shoot sideways. It doesn’t really which way the ball is spinning (left to right or right to left), if you topspin the ball, you can control the sidespin.

You also have a much bigger margin of error. When you topspin, the flight of the ball goes up, clearing the net, and the spin brings the ball back down. So even if you don’t get the contact or timing just right or you misjudge the spin slightly, you still have a decent chance of returning the ball.

By playing topspin (i.e. an attacking stroke), you can put your opponent under pressure straight away. Not only have you taken away your opponent’s strength (sidespin serve), but actually you have gained an advantage in the rally. You have got your attack in first, giving you a better chance of controlling the rally.

If you want a visual demonstration of how to return a sidespin serve with topspin, take a look at this video I created with Nila, a player who I coach and train with…

In the video, Nila makes it look quite easy to return my sidespin serve. It looks easy, because it really is easy! I’ve taught loads of players how to do this. They are usually amazed and delighted as they have never been able to do it before. In an instant, this topspin return has turned a losing situation into a winning one.

Of course, you need to be able to topspin the ball – a flat drive doesn’t work nearly as well. If you can’t currently play a forehand or backhand topspin, you must learn these strokes. Take a look at my ‘How to play’ section for more guidance.

Progression

To begin with, I definitely recommend returning sidespin serves with controlled topspin. This means: DON’T TRY AND BLAST YOUR OPPONENT OFF THE TABLE. Just get the feeling of spinning the ball with short, controlled topspin strokes.

This will help develop your consistency, which in turn will build confidence. When controlled topspin becomes easy, then try gradually returning with faster and more aggressive topspins. They key is to keep your technique the same, just play the stroke with more acceleration.

When you progress to play fast topspin returns, then you can really dominate your opponent’s sidespin serve. Hooray!

The post How to return a sidespin serve appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Most players I coach have at some point had to listen to my dreaded table tennis car analogy.

I usually reel it out when a player is having difficulty learning a new stroke. He is so focused on his own body movements, that he doesn’t watch what I’m doing and isn’t ready to play the next shot.

The rally breaks down and the player says something like “it’s difficult to think about what I need to do and watch what you’re doing at the same time”.

Ding!

This is my cue.

It’s time for my table tennis car analogy. For your benefit, here it is…

My table tennis car analogy

Learning table tennis is like learning to drive a car. When you first learn to drive a car, you’re a terrible driver. You’re not very good at seeing what’s in front of you – all of the potential hazards and dangers – because your mental energy is focused on the mechanics of the car.

You are preoccupied with the the clutch, the accelerator, the brake, the gear-stick, the indicator, the windscreen wiper, the speed dial. Your focus is just trying to make the car move and keep it moving. It’s difficult to consciously do this and consciously pay attention to what’s going on in front of you and use your mirrors to check what’s going on behind you.

However, the more you drive, the less you have to consciously think about the mechanics of the car. You have repeated the actions so many times, that you start to do everything subconsciously.

Your mental energy is now freed up and you can start to concentrate on the road and potential hazards in front of you – the car turning right, the cyclist pulling out without signalling, the pedestrian stepping out into the road. You adjust your driving accordingly and you proceed without incident. You’re a good driver!

Learning to play table tennis is very similar. When you first learn a new stroke, you are very focused on the mechanics of your own body. You consciously focus on your bat starting position, your bat finishing position, you arm movement, your wrist movement, your stance, your grip, your footwork, where the ball goes. All of your mental energy is focused on yourself. This makes it very hard to focus on what your opponent is doing.

But, like learning to drive a car, the more your practice a stroke, the more consistent and confident you become, the less you have to think about the mechanics involved. You play the shot automatically, without thinking. The shot becomes fixed in your subconscious mind.

Your mental energy is now freed up to focus on what’s in front of you, i.e. your opponent. When you watch what your opponent is doing, you can react quicker and close off any potential dangers and threats.

This is why top table tennis players are so good, why they seem to react so quickly and seem to know exactly what shot their opponents are going to play. They don’t have to actively think about their own strokes. It’s all subconscious. Instead they can watch their opponents and react with seemingly lightning speed.

So, if you’re struggling to learn a new stroke, don’t be too hard on yourself. You need to have patience. You need to practice the shot until you can play it without thinking. How long does this take? It depends. We all have different learning capacity and different amounts of time available to practice. What will take someone six weeks, may take someone else six years!

But the key here is practice and repetition. The more you do it, the less you will need to think. When you think less about what you’re doing you can concentrate more on what your opponent is doing. When you watch your opponent more, you can react quicker, get into position sooner and play your shots better.

Analogy over! Let’s get back to playing…

Image courtesy of www.designboom.com

The post Why learning to play table tennis is like learning to drive a car appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Spare a thought for the professional players who lost to Tomokazu Harimoto at the recent ITTF World Tour India Open.

Why? Because Harimoto is only 13-years-old. That’s right, THIRTEEN. On his way to the final he beat Alvaro Robles (ranked 102), Robert Gardos (ranked 46) and Sharath Kamal Achanta (ranked 62). Only Dimitrij Ovtcharov (ranked 5) was able to beat him.

This Japanese wonderkid is phenomenal (you can watch his semi-final victory against Achanta here).

Any adult who has played competitive table tennis at any level will be able to sympathise with Robles, Gardos and Achanta. We have all been there. We have all faced the unnerving and unglorified challenge of trying to beat a junior player. And not just any junior player. A junior who has been coached. A junior who has good technique and some great shots. A junior who plays without fear.

It’s a difficult situation. There is no glory in beating a junior, but if you don’t try your best, you can easily get beat / destroyed.

In this blog post, I’ll give you some tactics on how to beat a good junior player.

(Please note, this isn’t a blog post on how to beat Tomokazu Harimoto. Quite frankly, if he can beat full-time professional adults, the rest of us have absolutely no chance whatsoever! But you might want to look at this analysis by US coach Samson Dubina who has identified some weaknesses in Harimoto’s game).

What juniors are good at

The first thing to understand is that juniors, especially if they have been coached, are usually really good at fast, topspin rallies.

Why is this? The story usually goes something like this…

A junior will turn up at a table tennis club and show some promise. A coach, noting the potential, will offer some advice. The coach will get the junior driving and spinning the ball with good technique. As the junior doesn’t have 30 years of bad habits to undo (like some adults), he/she will develop good technique very quickly.

As the junior progresses, he/she will get more involved in local, regional or even national coaching sessions. The junior will spend a lot of time doing topspin drills to help develop his/her footwork, placement, consistency, speed and power with lots of other juniors.

After a year or two, there will be a strong group of juniors, playing in a similar way, doing endless drills to develop a very strong, fast topspin game.

As they train and play in a similar way, they all become very good at this topspin game. They can rally all day long!

So for us adults, taking on juniors at a topspin game can be dangerous. You’d better be good at topspin rallies yourself, otherwise you can get smashed all over the table.

So if going topspin to topspin with a junior is risky, what other tactics can you use?

Use lots of backspin

Whilst most juniors’ topspin game is very developed, I have often found they struggle with backspin. They haven’t spent nearly as much time practising pushes or looping backspin balls, as they have playing topspin rallies.

If you tie them up with backspin, they can start making lots of errors through mis-timed pushes or weak loops. Even if they can loop backspin balls, they don’t yet have the physical power to play blistering loops, so may give you the chance for some easy counter-attacks.

So try serving heavy backspin serves, forcing them to push and then keep your pushes low over the net with plenty of backspin. When receiving, try returning serves with backspin. Even do this with side-topspin or plain topspin serves. Really chop down on the ball to give a heavy backspin return and wait for the mistakes to happen or a loose ball to attack.

Vary the speed

Juniors like to play fast rallies, but they can struggle when the pace is slowed down. They will often struggle against players with slow bats or pimples, who are able to take the pace out of the rally. The ball just doesn’t come through to them as quick as they’re used to. Instead of adjusting to the slower pace, they tend to rush and play too early and make mistakes. So try using slow, short pushes, soft blocks and even slow but very spinny topspins.

Use the full area of the table

It’s time to get a bit cruel. You get the occasional full size junior who has started puberty extra early, but most juniors are small. One of the weaknesses of being small is that you have to work harder to cover all areas of the table. So use this to your advantage. Really try to find some wide angles with your shots and keep switching the play from wide forehand to wide backhand (or the other way around). You’ll soon have them scampering all over the table trying to keep up with you. And don’t forgot the short balls too. Very short serves and very short touch returns can be difficult for juniors to reach.

Serve with heavy spin

Juniors are usually pretty good at attacking weak serves. So you need to bring your best service game to the table. Make sure you serve with heavy spin. It doesn’t matter what type of serve – backspin, sidespin, topspin or variations of each spin, just make sure the spin is heavy. Returning serves takes a long time to master and juniors are still very much in the learning process so tend to struggle with high quality spin serves. And don’t be afraid to try something unusual, something a bit freaky! If you use a service action they are not familiar with, they probably won’t have a clue what to do.

Lob the ball high

If all else fails and you’re desperate to find a way to beat the pesky junior, try lobbing the ball up high. This will probably make you the most unpopular person in the room, but it can be very effective. Again, due to their size and lack of smashing practice, juniors are sometimes clueless about what to do with a high ball. The key is to get the ball very high and very long, with topspin or sidespin. And then watch the junior flap about in the air, trying to work out what to do. (Note: if the junior knows how to smash, this is likely to be a terrible tactic!)

Try your best

If you’re an adult playing a junior, it’s not a particularly enjoyable experience. If you win you feel slightly guilty. If you lose, you feel embarrassed.

But I think it’s important to try your best. If you play half-heartedly, there is very good chance you will lose. And it doesn’t actually help the junior player develop.

If you try your best and win, the junior player will be disappointed and you probably won’t feel ecstatic, but it will give the junior player an opportunity to learn and work out what he/she needs to do to improve.

And if there is one thing we all know about junior players, is that they can improve very quickly. This is another reason to try your best, as it may be the last time you can beat the junior player. In six months time when you play the junior again, he/she could have developed into the next Tomokazu Harimoto and absolutely thrash you. So enjoy beating the junior whilst you can!

The post Tactics for beating a good junior player appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

We all have periods when we feel our progress has stalled or our form has dipped.

This is entirely normal.

I often remind the players I coach (and myself), that improvement doesn’t take place in a straight line.

In reality improvement often looks like the graph below, with lots of ups and downs, but gradually moving in the right direction.

Let’s look at what can cause a dip in form and what you can do about it.

What causes a dip in form?

There could be a number of reasons why you have a dip in form. Here are some of the most common:

• Not enough practice – you’re not spending enough time on the table hitting balls, so you lose some sharpness
• Aches, pains, strains and injuries – you don’t push yourself as hard as you can to protect your body
• Overtraining – your body is too tired or training is becoming a chore and your motivation drops
• A big change in technique – often when you make a big change to your technique, you get worse before you get better, as it takes time to develop consistency and confidence
• Your mind is elsewhere – work, family, finance, health, relationships
• Overconfidence – you’ve been playing well so start thinking you’re better than you are and become complacent
• Underconfidence – you’ve had a bad performance and start to doubt your table tennis abilities
• Lack of motivation – you have no goals you’re aiming for, so see no purpose in trying to improve

What to do about a dip in form

The most important thing to do when you have a dip in form is don’t panic. As the graphs above show, improvement doesn’t happen in a straight line. It goes up and down.

Dips in form are usually temporary. So don’t compare yourself to how you were playing last week or last month. Instead compare your form over a long time period, e.g. a year ago.

Are you a better player than this time last year? Hopefully, the answer will be yes.

When you have reassured yourself that you are good at table tennis, and your dip in form is temporary, you can plan how to get back to playing your best.

Take a break

Sometimes the best answer is to take a break. This is certainly true if you have a persistent injury, which is preventing you from playing your best. Rather than struggling through and making the injury worse, it’s best to stop playing and let your body recover.

Other reasons why you may want to take a break is if you’re mind is seriously distracted with life issues or you your motivation level has significantly dropped. Table tennis is just a game. A silly game, when you really think about it. Take a break. Do something else. Come back to playing when you feel refreshed.

Players are sometimes worried that if they stop playing for a week, two weeks or whole month, everyone else is going to get better than them. This doesn’t really seem to happen. Often the opposite is true. Players come back from a break revitalised. The reset button has been pressed. They have renewed energy, focus and appetite for playing. They can very quickly return to playing their best.

Purposeful practise

Taking a break is only the answer in some situations. Most times, when you experience a dip in form, the best answer is to get back to the practice table. This is where improvement takes place.

Part of your focus should be on practising any shots you’re struggling with. For example, if you keep losing points with unforced pushing errors, now is the time is to work on improving the consistency of your pushing. Or if your opponents keep exploiting your weak backhand, now is the time to pay some special attention to improving your backhand, so it becomes less of a weakness. This will give your more confidence when you play your next competitive match.

But it’s not all about focusing on your weaknesses. A good way to recover from a dip in form is to practise your strong shots too. So if you have a strong forehand topspin, do plenty of drills where you use this shot. Focus on making your strength as consistent (and deadly!) as possible. This will put your in a positive mind-frame. Even if you have a few weaknesses in your game (we all do), you can feel reassured that your strong shots are working really well. Another confidence boost.

Whatever you do on the practice table, make sure you practise with a purpose. Really try to analyse your own performance in competitive matches. What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? Work on both.

Dips in form are temporary

A temporary dip is fine. It happens to us all. The important thing is to recognise you have a dip in form and do something about it. You need to stop a dip in form turning into a long term slump.

Take a break if you’re injured, unmotivated or your mind is distracted with personal issues. Otherwise get back to the practice table and get your game into tip-top shape with some purposeful practise.

The post How to recover from a dip in form appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

When players I coach progress from beginner to intermediate standard, I encourage them to buy a better bat. But what the heck should they buy? There are just so many bats available – all with different levels of speed, spin and control. Plus decisions need to be made about rubber thickness, blade speed and handle shape.

For a player who is buying their first ‘proper’ bat, it can be quite an overwhelming experience. But do not worry, help is at hand. In this blog post, I share the advice I give to the intermediate players I coach (including specific recommendations). I hope my advice helps you too…

Spin, speed and control

Many beginner players start with fairly basic bats. They’re not too fast or spinny but they do have plenty of control. This is ideal for a beginner. But as your technique improves, you should improve the quality of your bat too. As a general guide, you should be looking to buy a bat which is a little faster and can generate more spin than your existing bat, but still retains good control.

In other words, don’t jump from a beginner bat to a really advanced, super-fast and super-spinny bat. You may find it difficult to control the ball, as the rubbers on these bats are very responsive. Instead you want something in between – faster than your beginner bat, but not as fast as the bats the professionals play with.

Custom-made bat or ready-made bat?

At the intermediate level, it doesn’t really matter if you buy a custom-made bat or a ready-made bat. It won’t be your ‘forever’ bat. You’ll probably use it for a 12-18 months and then buy something better again.

If you want to buy a custom-made bat, you need to choose a rubber for your forehand, a rubber for your backhand and a blade.

The benefit of a custom-made bat is that you can choose any combination. For example, you may want a faster rubber for your forehand (for attacking play) and a slower rubber for your backhand (for all-round play). You can customise the rubber thickness (thicker = faster, thinner = slower) and the shape of the bat handle.

For table tennis geeks, like myself, this level of customisation is wonderful. You can lose hours researching and reading reviews, as there is just so much choice available.

However, this doesn’t appeal to everyone. If spending hours trawling through table tennis equipment websites isn’t your thing, then you should consider buying a ready-made bat (recommendations below).

A ready-made bat usually has the same rubber for both the forehand and the backhand and limited choice on blade, rubber thickness and handle shape. The quality of the bat is good, but there is simply less customisation and less choice available. But if you play a similar style for both forehand and backhand strokes, then it’s fine the have the same rubber on both sides of your blade.

Cost

A intermediate bat is going to cost more than a beginner bat. You’re paying for the extra quality of material. However, you don’t need to spend a fortune. Typically, a good intermediate bat will cost between £50-£120. From my experience, a ready-made intermediate bat is usually a little cheaper than a custom-made intermediate bat.

Recommendations

There are hundreds of rubbers and blades available to buy and there is no way I (or anyone else) have tested them all. But here are a few blades and rubbers I recommend for intermediate players based upon my own playing and coaching experience.

Blades

• Buttefly Boll Allround Blade
• Stiga Classic Allround Blade
• Andro Super Core Cell Allround+ Blade
• Joola Mikado Allround+ Blade

Rubbers

• Butterfly Roundell Soft
• Yasaka Mark V
• Andro Shifter Powersponge
• Donic Vario

If you want to buy a custom-made table tennis bat, you will need to purchase via a table tennis retailer. Take a look at my list of retailers in UK, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia.

You can also buy ready-made bats from table tennis retailers. On their websites look for ‘pre-assembled’, ‘ready-made’ or ‘complete’ bats.

Another good option for ready-made bats is Amazon. The good thing about Amazon is you can read lots of user reviews to help you make an informed choice.

Recommended bats (UK)

• Stiga Allround Classic Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Palio Legend Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Tibhar Powercarbon XT Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Cornilleau Excell 3000 Carbon Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Joola Table Tennis Bat – Rosskopf Autograph (Amazon)

Recommended bats (USA)

• Stiga Pro Carbon Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Killerspin Jet600 Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Palio Master Table Tennis Bat (Amazon)
• Butterfly 603 Shakehand Racket (Amazon)
• Yasaka Sweden Extra with Mark V Rubber (Megaspin)
• Donic Waldner 900 (Megaspin)

BEST-SELLERS: Take a look at my list of the most popular table tennis bats purchased by readers of my website.

Final thoughts

Whatever bat you decide to buy, remember – get something faster and spinnier than your existing bat, but not too much faster and spinnier!

I remember the first ‘proper’ table tennis bat I bought when I played my first league season about 10 years ago. I was intermediate standard, but wanted something fast like the other players in the club. I looked through the catalogue and picked out a very fast rubber for my forehand, a very fast rubber for my backhand and an offensive blade. It was a very quick bat, to help me play fast table tennis.

What happened? I had a terrible season. I just couldn’t control the ball. Yes, my shots were fast, but they weren’t landing on the table! Attacks went long, pushes popped up high, blocks catapulted off my rubber. In short, the bat was too fast for my developing technique.

When the season finished, I bought my next bat. This time I went for an all-round blade, and rubbers with a bit more control. There was an instant improvement. I stopped making so many unforced errors and I was enjoying my table tennis again.

Moral of this story? Just because you’re improving, it doesn’t mean your Ma Long yet! Buy a faster bat, yes, but not too fast! Make sure you still have plenty of control.

The post Best table tennis bats for intermediate players appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

Some players are guilty of not moving their feet when they play. Instead, they reach or lean when trying to hit the ball. This is not good. When you reach or lean, you have far less control over the ball and are far more likely to make mistakes.

A confession. I am often guilty of this. I get lazy. I stand back on my heels, rather than the front of my feet. I reach for wide balls. I lean for balls played to my body. It’s a bad habit.

But when I do move my feet, making small adjustments to get in the right position, I play so much better.

To help me improve my footwork, I had some coaching a few years ago with Mark Mitchell, a former England international player and a top coach. He got me doing a drill, where I had to make small steps, either to the left or right, to try and get my body in the ideal position to play forehand attacks.

I liked the drill so much, I often use it in my own coaching sessions. It’s a great way to improve your footwork and to get into the habit of making small adjustments to get into the ideal position to play shots as best as you possibly can.

For your benefit, I will explain the training drill below. You can either watch the video demonstration or follow the diagrams and written explanations (or both!).

Small steps training drill

Explanation

If you watched the video, you will see that I used some masking tape. This is to help the player doing the drill know where to move to. It also helps the feeder place the ball consistently.

The drill is in five parts. Depending on your ability level, you may choose to focus on different parts. For example, parts 1 and 2 are easiest. Parts 3 and 4 are a little harder. Part 5 is much harder.

Part 1

2 balls to tape, 1 ball to forehand

The first part of the drill is really simple. The feeder puts two balls between the tape, and then one ball towards the forehand side.

When the feeder puts the ball wide of the tape, the player has to make a small step, using both feet, play the shot and then move back again.

Part 2

2 balls to tape, 1 ball to middle

The next part of the drill is similar, but this time the feeder puts two balls between the tape, and the third ball goes towards the middle.

Again, the player has to make a small step, moving both feet to get into a good position to play the shot.

Often players find moving in this direction a little harder, so you may need to spend more time doing this to get the footwork right.

Part 3

2 balls to tape, 1 ball to forehand, 2 balls to tape, 1 ball to middle

Now you put it all together. The feeder puts two balls between the tape, one ball to the forehand, two more balls to the tape and one ball to the middle.

You are really only playing on 2/3rds of the table, at most, but it’s still important to make these small steps to get into the right position. If you reach or lean, your shots won’t be anywhere near as good.

Part 4

1 balls to tape, 1 ball to forehand, 1 balls to tape, 1 ball to middle

It’s time to speed things up a bit. Now the feeder only puts one ball between the tape. So one ball to the tape, one to the forehand, one to the tape, one to the middle and so on.

The player will now have to make a small step for every single shot.

This is harder work, so you really need to be on the front of your feet, ready to move all the time.

Part 5

X number of balls to middle, 1 ball to either forehand or middle

This is where it gets much harder. The final part of the drill is random. The feeder plays to the tape any number of times and then plays a ball to either the forehand or middle, and then back to the tape again.

The player really has to watch the feeder’s bat to see where the ball is going, then make a quick small step, play the shot and move again for the next ball.

Most players I coach find this part of the drill very challenging.

Summary

All of those drills described above are for playing forehands, but you can easily do the same thing focusing on the backhand. You just need to move the tape to the backhand side of the table.

What I really like about this drill, is that it gets you into the habit of making small adjustments with your feet, even if the ball is played in this central zone. If you get into the right position, you’re going to find it so much easier to play better quality shots.

It’s something you really notice when you watch professional table tennis players. They are also moving their feet, always trying to get their body in the best possible position. This one of the reasons why they are so damn good!

Give the drill a try. Let me know if you find it helpful.

The post Small steps training drill appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

There’s a new table tennis brand on the market. The new brand, Eastfield, is the creation of Ben Larcombe, who runs the popular Expert Table Tennis website.

The first bat to be released under the Eastfield brand is the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat. This bat is aimed at players who are learning the game and want more control and feeling, rather than blistering speed.

Ben very kindly sent me an Eastfield Allround bat to try out. I’ve been using the bat on and off for the past month in my coaching sessions. Here’s my review…

Ultimate control

Let’s start with the big positive. This bat is incredibly easy to play with. You don’t need to have perfect technique to keep the ball on the table. The rubbers and blade are designed to give you a bigger margin of error compared to really fast bats. So if you don’t quite get your stroke right, you still have a decent chance of the ball landing on the table.

The Eastfield Allround table tennis bat is great for playing push shots. It’s very easy to keep pushes low over the net with plenty of backspin. As the rubbers are not that sensitive to incoming spin, the ball hardly ever popped up when I played a push shot. Blocking is also very easy. I felt I could block all day long, especially against the big spin shots.

Steady speed

All of this control does come at a price though. The Eastfield Allround table tennis bat is quite slow to play with. Certainly when you compare it to the Palio Expert table tennis bat (review here), which is another bat aimed at beginners / improvers, it does feel noticeably slower.

You really have to extend your stroke and use a bit more physical power to generate some fast shots. So it is possible to play fast attacks, you just have to commit to the attack a bit more – the rubbers aren’t going to do the work for you.

If you’re a beginner player this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. With a slower bat there is less chance you will overhit attacks. And you will have to focus more on playing with good technique to generate speed rather than relying on the bat.

Decent spin

You can generate decent spin with these rubbers. I was able to keep my serves low over the net and get plenty of sidespin and backspin.

When playing topspin attacks, the rubbers grip the ball nicely. But due to the slowness of the bat, my topspin attacks weren’t blisteringly fast. To get really fast and spinny loops, I had to work physically harder.

Again, this isn’t such a bad thing if you’re a beginner player, as you really need a bat with more control rather than speed to begin with. The key point is that it is easy to generate topspin with the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat, just don’t expect you’re topspins to be super fast.

Who should buy?

I think the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat is an excellent choice for beginner players. The high level of control makes it very easy to play with. You will find it easier to keep the ball on the table compared to faster bats on the market. Even though the bat is a little slower than other good beginner bats, the benefit of this is that you will need to develop good technique to play faster shots.

I think the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat could also be a really good choice for a more experienced player who likes to play a steady, controlling game and likes to slow the game down. The bat is very easy to push and block with and you could really mess up your opponent’s timing by taking the pace off the ball. There are plenty of these type of players in local league and they could benefit from using this bat.

Cost

The cost of the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat, at time of writing, is £49.95. This is more expensive than other bats aimed at beginners, but a heck of a lot cheaper than most custom made table tennis bats.

In defence of the price, I do feel the bat is very well made. Some of the bats aimed at beginners feel a bit flimsy, but this is a high quality bat made with good materials. You should get plenty of use out of it. And because it is custom made (rather than factory produced), you will easily be able to replace the rubbers when needed.

Summary

The Eastfield Allround is a high quality starter table tennis bat. It is very easy to play with, with high levels of control. It’s not as fast as other beginner bats, but you can generate speed with good technique. The rubbers are grippy, so it’s pretty easy to spin the ball. It’s an ideal bat for beginners or more experienced players who like to play a steady, controlling game.

Finally, I would like to give some praise to Ben Larcombe for creating a new table tennis brand. There is a huge amount of competition and some pretty huge, established brands, such as Butterfly, Stiga, DHS, Joola, Donic and Yasaka, which dominate the market. It’s a tough task getting a new bat to market (and approved by ITTF!) and Ben has succeeded in producing a very nice bat indeed. I know he has plans for another bat aimed at advanced players, so I’m looking forward to giving that a try too.

You can buy the Eastfield Allround table tennis bat from Amazon (UK) or direct from the Eastfield website.

The post Review: Eastfield Allround table tennis bat appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

You may have heard about this website called ‘Facebook’. Apparently it’s quite a popular social media site. All the cool kids are on it. Well so am I now!

Yes, I know, I’m about 10 years behind the times. Actually I was an early adopter of Facebook when it first came out. But I switched my profile off back in 2008. I can’t really remember why. I think I found it all a bit too much – all the constant messages and ‘poking’ (can you even poke people on Facebook anymore?).

The reason I have re-joined is so I can spread my love of table tennis even wider. I haven’t quite worked out what I’m doing yet, but I’ll definitely be sharing my latest blog posts, videos and other table tennis stuff.

Here’s a link to my page. If you’re on Facebook, please follow and like: www.facebook.com/TomLodziakTTCoach/

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A great way to improve your table tennis skills is to attend a table tennis training camp. Training camps are held all across Europe and typically last 3-5 days. During this time you will play a lot of table tennis!

There’s usually a lot of group training drills, focusing on technique, movement, service, receive and match-play. Some training camps will also include 1 to 1 coaching, so you can really work on your own specific needs.

You also get access to multiple coaches, most who will have coached or played at a very high level. The coaches are always keen to share their knowledge, so it’s ok to ask lots of questions.

A training camp will give you loads of things you can work on over the course of a season. You may not experience a big improvement straight away, but if you keep working on what you’ve learnt, you will definitely improve over time.

Above all, a training camp is pretty good fun. It’s a bit of escapism for a few days. You’ll finish with a few aches and pains for sure, but mentally you’ll be very refreshed.

Below, is a list of training camps in Europe and the UK. Most training camps will cater for beginner, intermediate and advanced players, but it’s probably best to check they are suitable for your playing standard before you book.

List updated: 22 March 2017

UK

Cooke & Deaton Summer Table Tennis School

• Where: Grantham, Lincolnshire
• When: July / August
• Coaches: Alan Cooke, Nicola Deaton, Alex Perry, Kelly Sibley, Desmond Douglas, Joanna Drinkhall, Paul Drinkhall
• Website: www.cookeanddeaton.com

Westfield Table Tennis Camp

• Where: Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
• When: May, August, December
• Coaches: Desmond Douglas, Tim Yarnell, Greg Yarnell
• Booking form for camp on 20-21 May 2017
• Read my review of Westfield table tennis camp

eBatt / Topspin Sports Table Tennis Camp

• Where: Harefield, Greater London
• When: August 2017
• Coaches: Eli Baraty, Filip Szymanski, Chris Doran and Matt Ware
• Website: www.topspintt.com/summer-camp/

Paul Drinkhall & Gavin Evans Training Days

• Where: Cippenham Table Tennis Centre, Slough
• When: 21-23 August & 24-25 August
• Coaches: Paul Drinkhall, Gavin Evans
• Find out more: Poster 21-23 August | Poster 24-25 August

Corby Smash Table Tennis Camps

• Where: Corby, Northamptonshire
• When: Various dates throughout the year
• Website: www.corbysmashttc.co.uk/training-camps

Western Europe 

B75 International Table Tennis Camp

• Where: Sindal, Denmark
• When: July
• Website: www.b75.dk/index.php/international-traeningslejr

GV. Hennebont Table Tennis Camp

• Where: Hennebont / Etel, France
• When: July / August
• Website: www.gvhtt.com/stages-tennis-de-table-ping-pong/table,tennis,training,camp,france.php

TopSpeed Table Tennis

• Where: Germany, Italy, Croatia
• When: Dates throughout the year
• Websites: www.topspeed-tt.com/lehrgaenge/

Andro Table Tennis School

• Where: Dusseldorf, Germany
• When: Dates throughout year
• Website: www.borussia-duesseldorf.com/deutsch/tt_schule/news.html

ZUGBRÜCKE Table Tennis School

• Where: Grenzau, Germany
• When: Dates throughout year
• Website

TTPOR Atema Training Camps

• Where: Setubal, Portugal
• When: Dates throughout year
• Website: www.ttpor.pt/index.php/atema/campo-de-treino-ttpor/

Eastern Europe

International Table Tennis Camp

• Where: Balatonfured, Hungary
• When: July / August
• Website: www.tabletennis.hu

TT Camps Hungary

• Where: Eger, Hungary
• When: All year
• Website: www.ttcampshungary.com

The post Table tennis camps in UK and Europe appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

One of the (many) ways you can get better at table tennis is to improve the placement of your attacks.

This is often what separates ‘very good’ table tennis players from merely ‘good’ table tennis players.

As a player and a coach, I have been aware of this for some time. But it really hits home whenever I play against a very good French player, Ronald, at my Cambridge-Parkside Table Tennis club.

Ronald is a master of well placed attacks. He isn’t the fastest attacker I have ever played or even the spinniest (although he does generate a lot of topspin!), but his attacks are just so well placed.

He is able to consistently get the ball within a few centimeters of the end / side lines of the table. Left corner, right corner, middle, off the side – he can hit them all.

I haven’t ever got close to beating Ronald. But you know what? I don’t really mind, as it’s a pleasure being beaten by a player whose attacks are so accurate!

So what can we learn from Ronald? Here’s three simple things to consider if you want to improve the placement of your attacks…

1. Avoid the buckets

In this diagram, you can see I have drawn two circles in the middle of the table. I’m going to call these the ‘buckets’. In almost all situations, you should avoid attacking to these areas.

Why?

Attacks to the buckets are the easiest for your opponent to return. Your opponent doesn’t have to move much – whether left, right or back. He/she can stay close to the table and block or counterattack fairly easily.

When I play, I love it if my opponent attacks the buckets. Not only are the attacks easy to return, but because the attack is shorter I can play quick, aggressive blocks, which put my opponent on the back-foot. I gain an advantage because my opponent’s attack is short and didn’t put me under any pressure.

2. Aim for the lines

So if attacks to the buckets are no good, what should you do instead? To put your opponent under more pressure, you should try and get your attacks deeper or wider.

Put simply, aim for the lines.

As this diagram shows, this could mean aiming for the corners, the middle or side of the table.

Why is this better?

When you aim for the lines, you force your opponent to move more – left, right or back. This has two main benefits:

• It’s harder for your opponent to play a good quality block or counter attack, if he/she is moving at the same time.
• By making your opponent move, you can open up the table. Even if he/she does return the ball, you will have created some good angles for your next attack.

The other real benefit of getting your attacks ball deep is that it takes time away from your opponent (if he/she doesn’t back up). If you opponent stays up close to the table and your attack is very deep, your opponent will have hardly any space to to play a stroke to return the ball.

This is very true at a local league level, especially in the lower divisions, where players don’t really back-up much. If you attack near the end line, you’ll often win the point without your opponent getting close to returning the ball.

3. Vary the position of your attacks

To be an even better attacker, you should try and vary the position of your attacks. This is something I drill into the players I coach all the time.

Some players make the mistake of attacking the same position all the time. This soon becomes predictable. Even if you get your attacks deep, they will be less effective if always played to the same position.

But if you can vary the position of your attacks and get them close to the line, you’ll cause havoc. It’s much harder to defend against a player who can attack any position on the table.

Even if you can’t do it now, your long term aim should be to be able to attack the different positions shown below.

Placement vs power

Up to a certain level, placement is far more important than power (professional players need both placement and power). So if you play at an amateur level – local leagues or tournaments – you’ll have far more success by learning to place your shots consistently close to the lines, rather than trying to blast the ball as hard as you can.

And there’s only one way to get good at improving your placement – that magic ‘P’ word again – PRACTISE. At first you may find you make more errors by hitting the ball long or wide. But this is ok. The more your practise, the more accurate you will become.

I’d rather hit one ball long and get the next four close to the line, than getting all five safely in the middle of the table. In the first scenario I have good chance of winning 4-1. In the second scenario the score may go my way, or I my attacks may be easily returned and I lose all 5 points.

So in summary, one way to improve your attacking game is to focus on the placement of your attacks.

You should:

• Avoid the buckets
• Aim for the lines
• Vary the position of your attacks

Now go practise and destroy your opponents!

The post How to improve the placement of your attacks appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

For most players, the forehand is the stronger attacking side.

This is certainly true for me. Forehand topspin is my favourite shot, which I try to use as much as possible (to cover up my weaker backhand).

But not all forehand attacks are equal.

Some table tennis players have blistering forehand attacks. Blink and the ball is past you.

Other players have steady forehand attacks. They can get the ball on the table consistently, but their attacks lack the speed and spin to really give you any trouble.

What are the strong forehand attackers doing, which the weaker forehand attackers are not?

Here are my tips on how to get more speed and spin on your forehand topspin attacks.

At the bottom of the blog post, I also share a video which addresses the same subject, with me hitting a few forehand topspins. If you prefer to watch a video rather than read the blog post, go straight to the video. The content is roughly the same.

Tip 1: Twist your waist

When playing forehand topspin attacks, you should use your waist as well as your arm.

As the ball comes towards you, you should twist backwards (from the waist) and then twist forwards when contacting the ball.

This ‘twist’ helps transfer the weight and momentum of your body into the shot, giving you some extra speed.

To help do the twist, make sure you right foot is a bit further back than your left foot (for right handed players). It’s harder to do if your feet are in a line. If your right foot is further forward than your left foot, you’ll find it difficult to twist at all.

Tip 2: Accelerate

To play fast attacks, you need plenty of acceleration with your waist and your arm.

Fairly obviously, if you attack with a slow waist twist and slow arm movement, your shot is going to go slow. But if you do the entire action with more acceleration the ball is going to go faster.

You should aim to keep your technique the same – right foot back, twist at waist, accelerate forwards – just do the entire motion faster.

If you’re a slow attacker, I’d recommend gradually increasing the speed. Don’t go straight from slow to as fast as you possibly can, as you’re likely to make too many mistakes. Just go a little bit faster than normal and see if you can do the shot consistently. If you can, go a little faster again and so on.

Tip 3 – Use your wrist

To get that extra bit of speed and spin on the ball, you can use your wrist to whip the ball.

Some players, like Timo Boll, use a lot of wrist (here’s a video example – thanks to Roger Hance for sharing with me).

If you watched the video you can see that Timo Boll’s wrist snaps forward when contacting the ball.

This is a bit more advanced and takes lots of practise to get the timing right. But it’s definitely worth practising, as you really can get that extra speed and spin to beat your opponent.

Other things you need to do…

To get the waist rotation, acceleration and wrist snap, you have to play relaxed. If you’re too tight, too tense, it’s not going to work. The more your muscles tighten up, the more everything slows down. So you have to be relaxed to get the speed.

To get the spin, you obviously need to brush the ball, rather than flat hit it. So you need to close your bat angle and brush towards the top of the ball.

And finally, make sure you contact the ball peak of the bounce or even just before the peak of the bounce. If you let the ball drift and drop too much, you’ll have to spin upwards more. You might be able to get plenty of spin, but you’ll struggle to get much speed.

How to practise

The easiest way to practise in the first instance is to get another player to block to the same spot and you just keep playing forehand topspins cross-court.

As you know where the ball is roughly going to go, you can really concentrate on playing with good technique – right foot back, twist at waist, accelerate forwards, wrist snap.

You control the speed of the attacks. If you make too many mistakes, slow down a little until you find a consistent level and then gradually increase the speed again, trying to maintain consistency.

When you can do this with good speed and spin, you should make the drill harder. For example, your partner can block to different positions, so you have to move and attack.

When you can play fast and spinny forehand attacks from different positions within the same rally in practice, you should be in good shape to start using your new attacking powers in matches.

Good luck!

Video tutorial – How to get more speed and spin on your forehand topspin attacks

The post How to get more speed and spin on your forehand topspin attacks appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to the great Larry Hodges. If you don’t know who Larry Hodges is, where the heck have you been? This man is MR TABLE TENNIS.

In short, Larry is a table tennis coach from the USA. He coaches. He plays. He writes. He organises. He sits through lots of committee meetings with other table tennis aficionados. And then blogs about it. He is the world’s leading table tennis evangelist (I have just given him this title). You can read more about Larry on his website.

Why am I writing about Larry Hodges? Quite simply, I think he’s great! He’s an inspiration to me, both as a coach and a writer. In this blog post, I’m going to briefly explain my love of Larry, shamelessly plug his new book (and a previous book which is the best table tennis book I’ve ever read) and share a recent interview, where he reveals his most important table tennis tip he’s ever written.

Writing machine

Larry Hodges can write and write and write and then write some more. He is a writing machine. I’m genuinely amazed (and jealous) by how effortless he makes it look.

I aim to publish a blog post once a week. Most weeks it feels like a struggle. Some weeks it feels like a titanic battle between my brain, hands and keyboard to form even a few sentences.

By contrast, Larry blogs five times a week. Plus he shares links of the latest table tennis content on the web each day. Plus he publishes a tip of the week. His writing is easy to read, informative, often humorous and always conveys his passion for table tennis.

If you haven’t stumbled across his work yet, let me firmly point you in the right direction.

Here’s his blog, which he updates 5 days a week: www.tabletenniscoaching.com/blog

Here’s his tips of the week, which he updates once a week: www.tabletenniscoaching.com/TipOfTheWeek

Books

If that wasn’t enough, Larry Hodges is the author of several table tennis books. In my opinion, Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers is the greatest table tennis book ever written. If you only ever buy one table tennis book, buy this one. Every player should read it. As the title suggests, the book is all about tactics. Every aspect of table tennis is covered in over 200 pages. Read it. Learn from it. You will become a better player. I have a signed copy which I have read start to finish twice and dipped in and out many other times. You can buy Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers on Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

Larry has just released his new book, More Table Tennis Tips. This book includes all 150 ‘tips of the week’ from his blog from 2014-2017, in one volume, in logical progression. There is so much good advice in this book, covering so many aspects of table tennis. It’s very easy to read. You can read start to finish or just dip in and out to the sections which are relevant to you. It’s like having your own personal coach in your pocket. You can buy More Table Tennis Tips on Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

Larry has published many other table tennis books. You can see the full list on his website.

Make America Great Again (the Hodges way, not the Trump way)

Larry Hodges is much more than a writer though. He is a professional coach and puts in long hours each week doing group coaching and 1-to-1 coaching with players of all standards. He has been at the forefront of developing table tennis in the USA over the past 25 years.

In particular, he has been a vocal champion of the full-time training centre. He set up the first full-time training centre in 1992 and now there are over 90. Junior USA players are now competing with the very best in tournaments around the world and it’s only a matter of time before this translates into success in the professional game.

In the UK, we have a severe lack of full-time training centres. This is something we should learn from and adopt from our friends in the USA.

Interview with Larry Hodges

So that’s enough of my love fest for one week. I hope you don’t feel too nauseous yet! Let’s hear from the great man himself. I caught up with Larry a couple of weeks ago and asked him a few questions. Here’s the interview, including Larry’s greatest ever table tennis tip…

Tom: What do you enjoy most about coaching?

Larry: I’m a problem-solver, and coaching is basically solving the problem of getting a player from Point A, where he is now, to Point B, where he wants to be. So coaching is no different than solving a crossword puzzle or brain teaser – and I love doing that! Plus, of course, there’s that great joy of developing a player until he’s about to beat you, and then you pull out that one serve you’ve been saving for years. More seriously, I get as much fun now coaching a player to a title as I ever did winning one myself.

Tom: What do you like the least about coaching?

Larry: It’s mentally and physically exhausting. Mentally, it’s sometimes tough getting started when I start coaching each day, though that part actually gets easier as you get into the session. Physically, it gets more difficult as the sessions go on, since I’m 57. One other thing I sometimes don’t like is that you’ll sometimes spend years with a student, and then one day he disappears, and you never see him again. (Yay for Facebook, where I can secretly spy on former students.)

Tom: What’s the best moment of your table tennis career so far (as player or coach)?

Larry: If you make me narrow it down to one, I’ll implode. I’m going to cheat and give a Top Ten list – not necessarily in order.

1. My induction into the U.S. Table Tennis of Fame in 2003.
2. Opening the Maryland Table Tennis Center in 1992.
3. Coaching Team USA (unseeded) to the semifinals at the 1994 World Youth Cup Championships in front of 30,000 fans.
4. Coaching at USA Nationals, U.S. Open, USA Team Trials, many others – so many of them, so many great performances and memories.
5. 1980 North Carolina Open Champion – my first Open Singles title. I had my picture in the local paper the next day, and signed dozens of autographs.
6. Coaching the Baltimore Orioles in 2013. I coached Brady Anderson and J.J. Hardy an hour each at MDTTC, and Darren O’Day about ten times, and spent four hours in their clubhouse taking challenges. Here’s my blog on it, and video (79 sec).
7. The publication of Table Tennis Tactics for Thinkers. I spent years thinking about writing this book, but just wasn’t sure if I was ready. It was a void that needed to be filled. It’s currently the top-selling book on table tennis at Amazon. (My previous best seller, Table Tennis: Steps to Success, sold over 30,000 copies and was translated into Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Hebrew, but it is now out of print. I’m planning a new version eventually.) I now have eight books on table tennis. The newest is More Table Tennis Tips.
8. I’ve been on TV many times (including twice on ESPN), but the highlight has to be the CNN/Headline News feature on the Maryland Table Tennis Center back in the 1990s. It was about three minutes long, and was shown worldwide over and over for 24 hours, and seen by tens of millions of people. I was interviewed on it.
9. Two Days of Terror. Around 1990 or 1991, for the first two days at the U.S. Open Team Championships I played like a maniac, beating hordes of top players without any bad losses. If I had stopped then I would have been rated over 2500 (strong enough to make U.S. National Team). On the third and final day, my teammates showed up late, and I ended up getting a last-minute five-minute warm-up with a really bad player who sprayed the ball all over the table with long pips. Between that, and my irritation at my teammates, I could barely play – and against two weaker teams and six lower-rated players, I went 0-6. I went into the tournament rated 2272, and despite that finish came out 2273.
10. Meeting and hitting with numerous celebrities: Pretty much the entire 2013 Baltimore Orioles baseball team; actors and actresses Susan Sarandon, Julia Dreyfus, and Adoni Maropis; comedians Judah Friedlander and Frank Caliendo; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; basketball star David Robinson; basketball free throw star Ted St. Martin; football star Errict Rhett; billiards star Jeanette “Black Widow” Lee; Olympic Figure Skating Coach Audrey Weisiger; Delaware Governor Jack Markell; Oscar Goodman, former mayor of Las Vegas; Anthony Williams, former mayor of Washington DC; New York Times Crossword Puzzle Editor Will Shortz; world poker champion Tom McEvoy; much of the U.S. Olympic Archery, Tae Kwon Do, and Judo teams (circa late 1980s); and of course many of the world’s best table tennis players – even got to eat dinner with the Swedish Team at the Worlds one year (Waldner, Persson, etc.).

Tom: You have written a lot of table tennis tips. If you had to pick one tip which would make the biggest impact to a player’s game, which would you choose?

Larry: That’s a really tough one, and it’s tempting to do another “Top Ten,” but I’m going to go with How to Move Up a Level. I’ve seen so many players have difficulty improving because they only worked on parts of their game.

Tom: Who is the toughest opponent you’ve ever played against?

Larry: The first 5-10 years I played that would have been any lefty with a good backhand hit, and anyone with short pips. (I finally figured both out.) From long ago, two players I used to struggle against were Bill Sharpe (lefty with long pips on backhand, no sponge, very aggressive against anything that wasn’t looped) and Jeff Steif (smart player who figured out my weaknesses). I never beat Bill. I lost something like the first 14 times against Jeff before winning the last time we ever played – in the match to make the “A” Division at the U.S. Open Teams many years ago, with us winning 5-4! My teammates were Dell, who won all three (I won two), Connie, and 13-year-old future Olympian Todd Sweeris. All four of us are now in the U.S. Table Tennis Hall of Fame!

Tom: You’re playing in the Olympic final. The score is 3-3 and 9-9 in the deciding game. It’s your serve. What two serves will you use?

Larry: That’s a highly tactical question. If I were playing someone my level, I might think back over the match at what “trick serves” worked, one where I might be able to win a cheap point. Then I’d use that one, and then a “third-ball serve,” probably short to the middle, to cut off angle, so I can follow with a forehand. I often liked to serve very low, short side-top, faking backspin, which most opponents would return somewhat passively, giving me an easy forehand. Or perhaps a big breaking serve into the wide backhand, where most opponents topspin it back softly, again giving me a relatively easy forehand.

But this is the Olympic Final, 9-9 in the last game. Since umpires rarely call illegal serves, I’d just hide contact, spit on the ball as it goes behind my head, and watch my opponent put it in the net.

Tom: Which player in the US has biggest potential to break top 20 in the world?

Larry: Never in U.S. history have we had so many top cadets and juniors who have the potential to be great. This is because of the rise of the full-time training center – we’ve gone from one in 1992, to about eight in 2007, to over 90 now. The first name that comes to mind on the boys’ side is of course Kanak Jha, U.S. Men’s Champion at age 16 and #13 in the world in Under 18. But there’s an incredible list of others his age or a year or so younger who are knocking on his door, and sometimes beating him. On the girls’ side, Crystal Wang and Amy Wang both have the potential, if they have the overwhelming desire to go for it.

Tom: You’ve got the afternoon off. No table tennis. No sci-fi writing. What are you going to do?

Larry: Crossword puzzle, movie, and a great sci-fi novel, with lots of popcorn and Mountain Dew, and some Rocky Road ice cream!

Tom: If you weren’t a table tennis player and coach, what other sport would you like to be a professional in?

Larry: When I was a kid I was an Orioles baseball fan, and dreamed of being a major league baseball player. (That and boxing were the only sports I ever followed as a kid.) When I was twelve, I got my dad to make me a wooden home plate. I put it on my bed, then put strings across the walls so I could see the actual strike zone. Then I’d spend hours studying it. When I did play, I absolutely refused to swing at anything outside the strike zone. Or anything near the edges. Or pretty much anything unless I had two strikes. The coach would yell at me all the time, “Swing the bat!” I’d lead the team in walks and score a lot of runs, but didn’t get many hits. But I did have a game-winning bases-loaded triple once (got thrown out at the plate, it was the top half of the last inning).

My most “memorable” moment in baseball, alas, was sort of embarrassing. I always wanted to play third base like Brooks Robinson, but couldn’t make the throw from there or shortstop. So I normally played second. But one day when I was about 13 I was playing right field. It was the last inning, we were up by a run, two outs, but they had a runner at second. The next batter singled to right. I fielded it as the runner was rounding third. I knew I couldn’t make the throw, but our team’s big star, who normally pitched but was playing center field at the time, came running over. I flipped the ball to him, he threw a perfect strike to the plate to nail the runner, and we won. Everyone poured out in the field celebrating and congratulating the guy who’d made the throw, but I sort of stood out there, thinking about it. I think that’s when I realized I’d never be a major league player.

Tom: Any big table tennis plans in the next five years?

Larry: Develop five Olympic Gold Medalists, nudge table tennis past basketball, football, and soccer (that’s football outside the U.S.!) in popularity, and be the first person to play table tennis on Mars. Oh, and several books planned: Parents Guide to Table Tennis; Table Tennis Fundamentals (a rewrite/update of my Table Tennis: Steps to Success), and of course in three years I’ll have Still More Table Tennis Tips.

I was recently named chair of the U.S. Coaching Committee. My focus there will be on recruiting and training professional coaches to set up and run full-time centers and junior programs. Right now USATT uses the ITTF coaching courses to certify coaches, but all we do is announce the course, and teach coaching to whoever shows up. We don’t do much serious recruiting, i.e. selling the benefits of being a full-time professional coach (you actually make good money while playing and coaching a game!), and we don’t teach them how to become a full-time professional coach – recruiting and retaining students, setting up junior programs and other classes, how to maximize income, setting up and running training centers, etc. I want to change this.

Quick fire questions…

Tom: Which is your strongest, forehand or backhand?

Larry: Forehand. (On the backhand I’m pure consistency. On the other hand, I’ve won a lot of matches against players who thought they could overpower my backhand with their backhand, and I’d just rally them down. Smart opponents realize they have to move the ball around, and when they get a weak ball, end it with their forehand – unless they have a really powerful backhand.)

Tom: Do you prefer games up to 11 or up to 21?

Larry: Definitely 21. (I miss being able to serve five times in a row, using each serve tactically. I also don’t like it that an opponent only has to score 33 points to win in most matches, instead of 42.)

Tom: Which is better, poly ball or celluloid ball?

Larry: Celluloid. (Yeah, I know, I have to get used to the new ball…)

Tom: Which is harder to play against, long pimples or short pimples?

Larry: A tie. (They are both equally easy to play – it’s only their level of play that would make them hard to play against. But a player with long pimples who can also attack effectively with the other side – that can be difficult for me to play.)

Tom: If you could start out again, would you be an attacker or defender?

Larry: Defender. (The late Barry Dattel, after watching me chop down a string of 2100-level players with a clipboard, said I’d missed my calling, and should have been a chopper. He was right.)

Tom: Favourite food?

Larry: Rocky Road ice cream!!! (But I also love Kung Pao Chicken, spaghetti – extra sauce, lots of garlic and onion – and have a strange fondness for peanut butter (crunchy!) and jelly sandwiches. I also drink too much Mountain Dew. I try to limit myself to one per day, but when I’m really busy I sometimes look the other way as I sneak a second or third.)

Tom: Favourite TV programme?

Larry: Game of Thrones. (I try not to watch too much TV, but favorites that I currently watch each week are The Walking Dead, Designated Survivor, and 24. I’ve read all the Game of Thrones books and met George R.R. Martin at a convention. Also can’t wait for the next season of House of Cards. Past favorites include West Wing, Star Trek – Original and Next Generation – and M*A*S*H. I sometimes get nostalgic for childhood favorites Gilligan’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes, and Get Smart.)

Tom: Favourite musician?

Larry: John Williams! He is the greatest ever at movie music. He’s been nominated for an even 50 Oscars, and won five times. Some of his scores include his five Oscar winners for Star Wars, Schindler’s List, Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Fiddler on the Roof, and others such as Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman, Saving Private Ryan, and, well, here’s a list of his Oscar Nominees! The guy’s incredible.

The post The best table tennis tip ever (interview with Larry Hodges) appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

If you’re thinking of buying a table tennis table for your home, your first big decision is where are you going to put the table – inside or outside?

If you have space inside, I’d definitely recommend getting an indoor table. Table tennis an indoor sport after all (you can read more about buying an indoor table tennis table here).

But if you don’t have space inside your home or in a garage, then your only choice is to get an outdoor table tennis table for your garden.

Actually this is ok. Outdoor table tennis can be great fun. It tends to have a more social aspect to it – drink, food, laughter, fun and games with friends and family. An outdoor table tennis table in the garden can provide hours and hours of entertainment.

In this blog post, I share some advice about buying an outdoor table tennis table, including information on brands, cost and some practical advice for how much space you need in your garden and how to look after your table. I also give a few recommendations on which outdoor table tennis table to buy.

Indoor vs outdoor table tennis

First a few words about the difference between indoor and outdoor table tennis. At a competitive level, both amateur and professional level, table tennis is most definitely an indoor sport.

This is mainly to do with the weather. Table tennis balls are very light, so any kind of wind can have a big impact on the flight of the ball. And if there are any wet patches on the table (because of rain), the ball won’t bounce, which makes it very hard to play.

But despite the weather there is a growing popularity for outdoor table tennis. It isn’t as serious as indoor table tennis and is played more for fun – what you might consider more as ‘ping pong’.

In many countries, there are outdoor table tennis tables dotted everywhere – parks, schools, train stations, shopping areas. In many cities in the UK, we now have lots of outdoor tables thanks to a project called ‘Ping’. And the ITTF has an introduced a new informal version of table tennis, called TTX, which can be played indoors or outdoors.

When thinking about getting a table tennis table for your home, the biggest advantage of an outdoor table is you have more space to play. Most people don’t have enough space inside their home for an indoor table. You actually need a fairly big sized room. This is less of an issue if you get an outdoor table. If you have a garden, even a small sized garden, you should have plenty of space to play (more on this later).

The biggest disadvantage is the weather. If there is too much wind, it is much harder to play, although it can be fun trying to battle the wind and your opponent – you get to play some crazy shots! If it is raining a lot, then just forget about playing. This is no fun. But you can play through a light drizzle. When the sun is out and there’s not much wind, outdoor table tennis can be great fun.

Table differences

Indoor and outdoor table tennis tables are very similar. They are the same width, the same length and the same height. The biggest difference is the material the table tennis top is made from. Indoor tables are solid wood. Outdoor tables are a mixture of metal and wood and finished with a coating to protect the table from sun, rain and wind. Outdoor tables also tend to have sturdier frames, which adds a little to the overall cost.

I wouldn’t recommend using an indoor table outside, as the wood surface can badly deteriorate if it gets wet or exposed to too much sunlight. And the frames aren’t as sturdy and won’t hold up that well if you have a slightly uneven surface.

So if you want to have a table tennis table for your garden, get a proper outdoor table tennis table.

There is a difference in how the ball bounces on an outdoor table compared to an indoor table. With an outdoor table, the metal/wood surface absorbs some of the energy of the ball, so it doesn’t bounce quite so well and the ball comes off the table a little slower. But, unless you’re playing at a high competitive level, you’re probably not going to notice much of a difference. And quiet honestly, I’ve played league matches on some old and slow indoor tables with some big dead spots – so it’s not as though all indoor tables are perfect.

A couple of years ago, I used to go to someone’s house to do some coaching. He had an outdoor table, but set it up in his garage. We did a lot of coaching on this table and it was absolutely fine for the standard he was playing at.

Setting up a table tennis table in your garden

Ideally, you need an even surface when setting up your table outside. You could set up on a patio area or a flat grass area. You can adjust the leg heights to even up the table, so even if you surface isn’t completely flat, you can still make the table top even.

Some wind protection can help. If you can position the table near a garden fence or the side of the house it will reduce some of the impact of the wind, although on a very windy day, it won’t make much difference.

In terms of space – the table length is 2.74 metres and the table width is 1.525 metres. You will also need a minimum of approx 5 steps back from the end of the table and 2 or 3 steps to the side of the table to have enough room to play. You should measure this out in your garden before buying to make sure you have enough space.

It’s best to buy an outdoor table which folds (most do), so that you can store it away neatly when you have finished playing.

Cost

An outdoor table tennis table can cost anywhere from £150/ $200 up to £1000 / $1500.

If you have read any of my other equipment articles, you will know that I always recommend that you don’t buy the very cheap options.

I’m going to give the same advice for outdoor table tennis tables! The budget price outdoor tables are quite flimsy, more likely to break and the bounce of the ball is terrible.

To get a decent outdoor table tennis table, which will last you many years and has a decent bounce, you’ll need to spend in the region of £300-£500 / $400-$600.

Best brands

There’s quite a lot of choice available. Kettler and Cornilleau have a good range of outdoor tables. These two brands are what most people buy for their garden. The more well known table tennis brands, such as Butterfly, Stiga and Joola, also produce outdoor tables. The quality is good, although they tend to be a little more expensive.

Recommendations

Here’s a few recommendations on which tables to buy. If you click through the links below, you’ll also be able to read reviews from other people who have purchased these tables.

Recommended tables (UK)

• Kettler Axos 1 Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)
• Cornilleau Sport 100S Crossover Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)
• Butterfly Spirit 10 Rollaway Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)

Recommended tables (USA)

• Kettler Axos 1 Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)
• Joola Nova Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)
• Stiga Outdoor Table Tennis Table (Amazon)
• Butterfly Sport Outdoor Rollaway (Megaspin)

If you want to do your own research, take a look at my list of table tennis retailers. Most of these will have outdoor table tennis tables for sale too.

BEST-SELLERS: You may also want to take a look at my list of the most popular table tennis tables purchased by readers of my website.

Protection

Finally, a word about protecting your table. Even though outdoor table tennis tables are made of materials to survive outdoor weather conditions, they are not indestructible! If you leave the table unprotected all year round, you will experience some deterioration.

Your table which last much longer if you fold it up after use and put a protective cover over it. Some tables come with a cover. If yours doesn’t you can buy one fairly cheaply. Here’s a decent option you can buy on Amazon UK or Amazon USA.

The post Tips on buying an outdoor table tennis table appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

My league season has finished. Time for a sigh of relief. Don’t get me wrong, I get a massive buzz from playing competitive table tennis (when I win), but it can also be a stressful experience. All of the pre-match nerves, worrying about win percentages and trying to get in ‘the zone’ – it can be mentally draining – and this is before a match even begins.

This year was particularly tough, as it was my first year playing in the top division in Cambridge. The standard in Division 1 is much higher than Division 2. Looking at the statistics of other players who moved up through the divisions, most got between 10-30% in their first season in Division 1. So I knew it was going to be tough.

I set myself a target to win 30% of my matches. Although during pre-season practice, when I started doubting my abilities, I would have settled for just one win. It didn’t matter if I lost the rest. Just as long as I won one match, thus avoiding the dreaded 0% win percentage!

In this blog post, I share my experience of playing in the top division and reveal whether I managed to win a match. I also give some advice on how you need to develop your game if you want to play in the top division of your local league.

My season

Our main team goal for the season was not to get relegated. We didn’t want to be one of those teams which yo-yo between Division 1 and Division 2. Promoted one year, relegated the next. We wanted to stay up and compete against the best players in Cambridge. This meant we had to finish a minimum of 3rd from bottom in a 12 team league. We were ready for a relegation battle from the very start.

Our season turned out very different. We actually finished in 2nd place. This was way above expectations. How the heck did this happen? I wish I could say it was because I was brilliant and destroyed all my opponents – but the truth lies elsewhere. The main reason for our success was our new player, James Ward. He’s a former top 10 junior and currently ranked in the top 100 in the country. He played 51 matches and won 50. That’s a big help!

How about me? Did I manage to win a match? Drum roll please …….. YES I DID! I actually finished with a 48% win percentage which was well above the 30% target I set myself.

Most of my wins came against players at my level or below. I wasn’t able to get wins against the strongest players in the division. In most of these matches I felt competitive. And if I played my absolute best, I was even able to get on top. But I wasn’t able to maintain my top form throughout an entire match. The top players were more consistent, more attacking and more experienced. They were simply better than me.

If someone had told me before the season that I’d finish on 48%, I would have been ecstatic. But I still feel a little disappointed. For most of the season we had an outside chance of winning the league. If I had won more, we could have been champions. But I can’t be too hard on myself. For my first season in Division 1, I’m pretty happy with how I did.

Difference between top division and lower divisions

So what are the differences between Division 1 and the lower divisions? In the lower divisions you get a lot of backspin rallies. Players push and push and push and then push some more, waiting and hoping their opponent will make a mistake. The game is slower. Players are more cautious. You have more time to choose the right ball to attack.

This completely changes in the top division. There is far less pushing and a lot more topspinning. The rallies are much faster. Players are far more attacking. You can’t stand around waiting for the easy ball to attack – as there are far less easy balls. You have to play strong attacks from difficult balls. Not once or twice, but consistently throughout the match.

In lower divisions, I was able to get away with playing passively. I could keep the ball on the table and most of the time win the point. When I needed to attack a bit more, I could do. I could win either way.

In Division 1 it was a different story. Playing too passively didn’t work well at all! This is a bad habit of mine. I can easily slip into ‘passive’ mode. I think this is a combination of (1) how I played in my early years (the habit is quite deeply ingrained) and (2) all the hours of coaching I do where I feed the other player with balls they can attack.

If I slipped too much into my passive mode during Division 1 matches, I would generally struggle. I would lose a few points very quickly, without troubling my opponent at all.

It would often take a word in the ear from a teammate to get me focused again. They would tell me to attack more. So that’s what I did. And guess what? I’d do much better!

To have any chance of competing in the top division, you need to have consistent attacking shots. You have to give your opponents something to worry about, something to fear. If you play too safe, you let the other player get into an attacking rhythm and then it’s generally game over.

Learning from James

It was a great having James Ward on our team. Obviously all of his victories helped us achieve 2nd place, but more importantly I was able to learn from him.

Basically, James in a topspin machine. He hardly ever pushes the ball. Everything is spin, spin, spin. This style of play means he is always on the offensive. He makes playing table tennis look very easy.

I would battle it against a lower ranked played, trying my hardest and scraping a 3-2 victory. James would play the same player and win 3-0, without breaking a sweat. It was great to watch and learn from, even if it did make me feel entirely inadequate!

James has a fantastically consistent backhand topspin attack. It’s quite a short stroke, but he’s really able to load it up with plenty of speed and spin and it’s just so consistent. He doesn’t miss that many. Over the summer, I’ll try and do a video tutorial for my Youtube channel featuring James’ backhand, so you can learn from it too.

Priorities for next season

So there you have it. We didn’t get relegated. We finished 2nd. I didn’t lose all my matches. I finished with a 48% win percentage. I finally feel like a Division 1 player. But I want to improve. I want to get to 60-70% (and above). This might not be next season or the season after, but I’ll get there.

Now the season is over, I can relax a bit more, enjoy my practice sessions and work on improving my game. Over the summer, I’m going to be focusing on:

• Getting more spin on my serves
• Improving the consistency of my 3rd ball attacks
• Returning serves with topspin
• Playing more backhand topspins in match-play
• Counterlooping with my forehand, rather than blocking

As you can see, I have a big focus on improving my topspin game. This will help me win more matches in Division 1 next season. Let the training begin!

The post My experience of playing in the top division appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

It can often be a challenge to find information online about where you can play table tennis. In an internet-obsessed age, we expect to find all information online. But table tennis clubs aren’t always great at having an online presence.

I know this from personal experience. When I first moved to London, I had great trouble finding where to play. It turned out, there was a great club close to where I lived, but I didn’t know that for two years, as I could never find any information.

The same thing happened when I moved to Cambridge. Information was very patchy. It was difficult to find out where clubs were, when they opened and how I could take part. Again, I had to do plenty of research and send a number of emails to find out there was a club close to where I lived.

In reality, most clubs are run by volunteers and setting up and maintaining a website is often at the bottom of the list of things which need to be done.

But do not despair!

I’m going to share a great new(ish) website with you, which makes it easier to find a table tennis club near you.

The website is ttRadar.com. It’s aim is to list all of the publicly available tennis venues. This includes clubs and other venues where you can hire a table to play. In short, you can go to ttRadar, enter your location and it will show you a map of all the places you can play table tennis near you. It is as simple as that.

The site already has over 500 venues. The is a strong focus on the UK (300+ venues), but it has potential to be a global resource.

The website was co-founded by Tarun Goel. I first met Tarun when playing in the Central London Table Tennis League and now we both play in the Cambridge Table tennis League (I think he’s following me!).

ttRadar has lots of potential but it needs your help. It’s a community driven website. This means it relies on all of us who play table tennis to add information about venues and clubs.

So you can do two things:

1. Use the website and let other people know about it.
2. Add information about any venues and clubs where you currently play table tennis.

Anything we can do to make it easier for people to find table tennis venues is a great thing. So please take a look at the ttRadar website. Use it to find places to play. And if your venue or club isn’t on the website, then please add it.

The post Find a table tennis club with ttRadar.com appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

A common problem players have when trying to block heavy topspin, is that the ball shoots long past the table.

I know this problem very well, as I used to really struggle with heavy topspin when I first started playing competitive table tennis.

I would see the shot coming. My opponent would drop his shoulder, the bat would go low and then accelerate upwards. It’s topspin! I knew it was topspin. But still I felt powerless to do anything about it. I’d get my bat to the ball in the hope it might go on the table. But it never did. The ball just shot off my bat, high into the air and flew long past the end of the table.

Disaster! Another point lost.

In time I learnt what to do. A more experience played took pity on me and explained how to block the ball.

Thankfully, the solution is quite simple.

In this video, I explain how to block heavy topspin and how you can use aggressive blocks to put your opponent under some serious pressure.

Video length: 05:06

The post (Video) How to block heavy topspin appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

I often have conversations with players I coach about when they should move up a division.

Some players want to move up local league divisions quickly. They are eager to play in a higher division, even if their win percentage in their current division isn’t very high.

My advice?

I tell them not to move up a division too soon. I tell them to get a 70% win percentage in their current division first. When they get this 70% win percentage, then they can think about playing in a higher division.

What’s the reason behind this? Why 70%? Let me explain…

70% win percentage

A 70% win percentage is a really good indication that you’re ready to play at a higher level.

When you get a 70% win percentage, it means you’re winning far more than you’re losing. It means you are able to compete with, and beat, some of the better players in your current division.

This is very important.

The players in the division above will be as good, and in a lot of cases better, than the top players in your current division.

If you can’t yet beat some of the better players in your current division, you will struggle to win matches in the division above.

As a rough guide, your win percentage will drop by 20-30% when you first move up a division.

So if you got a 70% win percentage in Division 4, you can expect to get a 40-50% win percentage for your first season in Division 3. This is fine. You are winning plenty of matches, but still lots of room for improvement.

But if you got a 50% win percentage in Division 4, you’re more likely to get a 20-30% win percentage if you move up to Division 3. This is too low. It’s a sign you are playing at a level which is too high for you.

Don’t move up too soon

I can understand the desire to play in a higher division, even if you’re not ready.

Part of this is ego. You have more table tennis bragging rights if you play in a higher division (even if you don’t win many!).

Others believe that playing against stronger players will help you improve quicker. I’ve never been entirely convinced by this argument, mainly because of my own personal experience.

This is what happened to me…

I started playing local league table tennis in London in 2007. The league had 3 divisions. I started in Division 3.

My first ever league season was pretty bad (I won 32% of matches). But in my second season I improved. I finished with 63%. Much better! I was beating the weaker players and players of a similar standard, but I didn’t beat any of the top players in my division.

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself about the increase in my win percentage. I wanted a new challenge. I wanted to test myself against stronger players. So I moved up to Division 2.

What happened next season?

I got slaughtered. I won only 21% of my matches. It really wasn’t much fun!

The biggest impact though was on my playing style. I became very passive in how I played, trying to contain stronger players, hoping they would make a mistake.

There seemed to be far less opportunity to attack, as the stronger players either kept the ball tight or got their attacks in first. I always seemed to be on the back foot. I found it much harder to develop my attacking game against players who were much better than me.

I got into a habit of expecting to lose. Even if I was winning, I lacked the belief to finish off a match. I’d play it safe, trying not to mess up. But this rarely proved effective. I just allowed my opponent to take control.

I struggled on like this for three more seasons, never really being able to make an impression on this division and always playing too passive.

In hindsight, I would have improved quicker if I’d stayed in Division 3, trying to beat the better players at this level and get that 70% win percentage. I would have developed my attacking game more and would have been better prepared for moving up a division.

Motivation

The other real benefit of playing at a level where you are winning more than you’re losing is that your enjoyment and motivation to play table tennis is higher.

Quite simply, it is more fun when you win more than you lose.

This gives you more motivation to train. The more you train, the more you improve. It becomes a virtuous circle. You win > you want to train more > you improve > you win more > you want to train more > you improve > you win more…and so on.

If you move up a division too soon, the opposite can happen. You lose far more than you win. You lose confidence. You doubt your abilities. Your motivation to train decreases. You have to be a pretty hardy soul to get beat every week and still have high motivation to train. Not many people are this tough!

Be honest with yourself

So before deciding whether you should play in a higher division, have a very honest conversation with yourself.

Did you get a 70%+ win percentage in your division? Were you able to beat some of the better players in your division?

If you can answer ‘yes’ to these questions, then you’re ready to move up a division. If you answered ‘no’ to these questions, it’s best to stay in the division you’re in.

Master your current division first and then move up.

The post When should you move up a division in local league? appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

A few years ago, I purchased a table tennis table for my home. It was an agonising decision (really it was!). Do I have enough space? Where am I going to store it? How much should I spend? Who am I going to play with? Am I really going to use it? Will I improve my table tennis skills? So many questions.

After weeks of deliberation and careful planning with my measuring tape, I bought the damn table – a Butterfly Easifold indoor table tennis table. It’s not the most expensive table available, but suited my needs and budget.

Fast forward to 2017. Do I regret buying the table? No. Have I used it lots? Yes. Has it helped me improve? Yes (I think!).

In this blog post, I’ll share some advice about buying a table tennis table for your home and give a few recommendations of decent (and affordable) tables you can buy.

How much space do you need?

The first and most important thing to consider is space. Do you have enough space in your home for a table tennis table?

Let’s look at how much space you need…

The length of a full-size table tennis table is 2.74 metres. The width of a full-size table tennis table is 1.525 metres. But you obviously need more space behind and to the side of the table to be able to play table tennis.

As a rough guide, you need 4 steps back (approx 2 metres) behind each end of the table and 2 steps (approx 1 metre) at each side of the table. This space is still a little on the tight side, but you will have room to play.

So you can see from the diagram above, ideally you need a room which is at least 6.74 metres long and 3.525 metres wide.

Options if you have less space

If you don’t have a room with this much space, you still have a few options.

1. Squeeze in

You could just play with less space if your room isn’t quite as big as the measurements above. If you only have space for two or three steps back from the table, rather than four, you could still just about play, but it’s going to be really tight. You’ll have to play close up to the table all the time. If you go back from the table too much, you’ll bash your bat against a wall (not good). So it’s possible to play with less space, but you’ll be more restricted in how you can play.

2. Buy a ¾ size table tennis table

It’s possible to buy a smaller table, one which is ¾ the size of a full size table. I think this is fine if you’re only going to play for a bit of fun with friends and family. You’ll get plenty of enjoyment from the table.

If you want to do serious training, a ¾ size table is not so good. You’ll have to adjust from playing on a smaller table at home to a bigger table at a table tennis club, which isn’t ideal.

Recommendations (UK)

• Butterfly Junior Table Tennis Table
• Wollowo 3/4 Size Junior Table Tennis Table

Recommendations (USA)

• Butterfly Junior Table Tennis Table
• JOOLA Midsize Table Tennis Table (note: this is 2/3 the size of a standard table)

3. Buy a table top

Some people have a room which is big enough, but the space is already taken up by a dining room table. In this situation, you could consider buying just the table top. This can sit on top of the dining room table when playing and then stored away when not in use. There are different sized table tops available, some smaller (to fit smaller dining room tables) and some full sized ones.

A table top is probably a better option if you just want to play for fun with family and friends. It may not be so good for serious training, as the height of the dining table may be different to a table tennis table.

Recommendations (UK)

• Viavito Flipit 6ft Table Tennis Top
• HLC 9FT Blue Folding Table Tennis Table Top
• Butterfly Table Tennis Top

Recommendations (USA)

• Viper Table Tennis and Game Table Top
• JOOLA Conversion Table Tennis Top
• Martin Kilpatrick Pool Conversion Table Top

4. Push table up against wall and use a robot

In my home, I have space for a table in my garage, but there isn’t enough room either end of the table for two people to play. So I can’t actually have a two player game.

Instead I just use my robot – RoboPong 2050 – to train with. Because the robot doesn’t need any space back from the table, I can push the table right against the garage doors. This then gives me space at my end to play (hooray!).

This is fine for my needs at the moment, as my kids are too young to play and my partner Jodi has no interest in table tennis whatsoever. It’s also great fun if we ever have a party. Everyone loves trying to play against the robot.

Related link: Can a table tennis robot help you improve

5. Go outside

If you really do not have enough space inside, then your only other option is to get an outdoor table tennis table. It can be hard to play if there’s too much wind, but on a fine sunny day, playing outside can be great fun.

Related link: Tips on buying an outdoor table tennis table

Table quality

If you have enough space, the next thing you need to consider is table quality. There’s a lot of different table tennis tables available to buy – some very cheap, some very expensive. How do you know if a table is any good or a load of rubbish?

As a general rule, you should judge the quality of a table by the thickness of the wooden top. This will range from 12mm (poor quality) to 25mm (excellent quality). So the thicker the wooden top, the better the quality will be.

Generally I would avoid buying a table with a 12mm table tennis top. The price will be low, but the quality will be poor. The ball doesn’t bounce very well on thin table tops and the construction of the table always seems a bit flimsy to me.

As a minimum, you should look to get a table with at least a 16mm table tennis top. The table I have in my garage is 19mm and the quality is fine for training with a robot.

If you can afford to get a table with a thicker top (22mm-25mm), go for it! These are the tables which are used in competitive leagues and tournaments (so very high quality) and I will be very jealous that you have a better table in your home than I do.

Most table tennis retailers will sell tables.Take a look at my list of table tennis retailers in UK, Europe, USA, Asia and Australia to find a retailer near you. Alternatively look at my recommendations below…

Recommendations (UK)

• Butterfly Easifold Indoor Table Tennis Table
• Butterfly Fitness Indoor Table Tennis Table
• Kettler Axos 1 Indoor Table Tennis Table

Recommendations (USA)

• Butterfly Easifold Indoor Table Tennis Table
• STIGA Advantage Table Tennis Table
• JOOLA Inside Table Tennis Table

Other things to consider

There’s a few other things you need to consider too. The following aren’t as important as space and table quality, but worth thinking about before purchasing a table tennis table.

Flooring

Ideally your table tennis room will have wooden / laminate flooring. This is the easiest surface to move around on, plus it’s durable – you’re not doing to cause any damage as long as you set up and tidy away your table with care.

You can play on carpet. This is ok. But be warned! The carpet will get seriously worn if you play too much, especially if you have a nice thick carpet. A thinner carpet would be better, but even this is going to get worn down after a while. You could put down a rug to protect the carpet, but then there is always the danger that rug may slip beneath your feet and then CRASH!

Tile flooring is ok, but can get slippery if too much moisture builds up in the room.

A concrete floor is also ok, but it’s not very forgiving on the body. If you have weak ankles, knees or hips, it’s best to avoid playing on a concrete floor.

Ceiling height

I wouldn’t worry too much about ceiling height. There’s not much you can do about this anyway, unless you decide to rebuild your home! As long as you can stand fully upright in your room, it’s fine to play table tennis. You won’t be playing international competitions in your home, so a high ceiling doesn’t matter. If you do have a low ceiling the only thing you’re not going to do is lob the ball up high. Everything else will be fine.

Playing in the garage

I’ve read articles online about how you shouldn’t buy an indoor table tennis table if you’re going to keep it in your garage, as the cold conditions can warp the table. These articles advice you should get an outdoor table tennis table instead.

Honestly, I wouldn’t pay that much attention to this advice. I keep my indoor table in my garage, and have done for a number of years, and it has been absolutely fine. The table has not deteriorated at all. And it isn’t as though I have a super-duper-state-of-the-art garage. It’s actually in a pretty bad shape / gradually rotting away (it’s on the list to get sorted out). As long as your garage doesn’t have water leaking from the roof, it’s fine to keep an indoor table tennis table in it.

Looking after your table tennis table

Looking after your table tennis table is really easy. It is very low maintenance. All you need to do is give the surface an occasional clean with a lightly damp cloth and that’s pretty much it.

If you keep your table in a dustier environment (like a garage), you can buy a cover. This will keep off all the dust and grime.

Recommendations (UK)

• Wollowo Table Tennis Table Cover
• Sponeta Table Tennis Table Cover
• Kettler Table Tennis Table Cover

Recommendations (USA)

• Joola Table Tennis Table Cover
• Kettler Table Tennis Table Cover
• Killerspin Table Tennis Table Cover

Robots, nets, collectors and balls

I will finish the blog post with a few recommendations of items you can buy to get the most enjoyment from your table tennis table.

Table tennis robot

A table tennis robot can be a useful way to train, especially if you don’t have anyone at home to practice with. I have a Robo-Pong 2050, which I am very happy to recommend. It’s a mid-range robot. It has loads of features compared to cheap robots, but it’s not as expensive as a top range robot. I have had this robot for four years and it has always worked perfectly.

• Robo-Pong 2050 (buy in UK | buy in USA)

Table tennis net

Do not buy a really cheap table tennis net. Cheap nets are notorious for falling to pieces after a short period of time. Spend a little more and you can buy a net which will last for a number of years (if you look after it). I’ve been using a Butterfly clip on my table at home and am happy to recommend this product. It’s not the most expensive net you buy, but good quality for a decent price.

• Butterfly Clip Table Tennis Net (buy in UK | buy in USA)

Ball catch net

A ball catch net is vital if you have a robot without a net attached. It can be a useful thing to have if you want to do a lot of service practice. You attach the net to the table and it catches the balls as you play with the robot of practise your serves. This means you don’t have to pick up loads of balls off the ground.

• Ball catch net (buy in UK | buy in USA)

Ball picker-up

This invention is great! If you have a robot or like to practice with a lot of balls, you’ll soon get tired of bending down and picking up a lot of balls from the floor. This clever device means no more bending down. You just push it down over the balls on the floor and it collects the balls in it’s net. Once all of the balls have been collected, you just empty it into you robot or ball box.

• My Ping Pong Buddy (buy in UK | buy in USA)

Table tennis balls

And finally, balls! You need plenty of balls. I recommend getting a box of training balls. These are still decent quality, but you can get a lot more for your money than competition quality balls.

• Table tennis training balls (buy in UK | buy in USA)

And if you do want to buy some competition quality balls, I recommend Nittaku Premium 3 Star table tennis balls (buy in UK | buy in USA). This are by far my favourite ball to play with.

Related link: Guide to the best table tennis balls

The post Tips on buying a table tennis table for your home appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.

One of the players I coach likes to finish our coaching sessions with some match-play. I ask him how he wants me to play – defensive, attacking or mix it up? He always wants me to play my best and give him everything I’ve got.

We have some good games. I usually come out on top, but it’s close. After we finished one week, he said he found it difficult when I attack too much. He goes into automatic blocking mode and becomes too passive.

So during our next session we worked on options for counter-attacking. When we played a few games at the end – he blocked less and attacked more and I found it much harder to win points.

So for your benefit, here’s a couple of things we worked on, plus a simple training drill you can do.

Note: This blog post is aimed at more advanced players. If you are at beginner level, you should try and master blocking first. Read my blog post ‘Frustrate your opponents with steady blocks, aggressive blocks and trick blocks‘ or watch my video ‘How to block heavy topspin‘.

Attacking options

If you’re playing an attacking player and you want to do more than just block, you have a couple of different options.

1. You can play a counter topspin close to the table
2. You can play a counter loop further back from the table

Both options are effective but in different ways. Let’s take a look at each option in more detail…

Counter topspin close to the table

First of all, here’s a video of counter topspin attacks played close to the table by some of the best players in the world.

Impressive stuff!

If you want to try and play this shot, this is what you need to do:

• Stay close to the table
• Start with your bat higher than normal
• Close your bat angle
• Play a short topspin stroke, aiming to brush the ball a little
• Try and contact the ball before the peak of the bounce

The key here is to play this shot with a short stroke and early timing. You really don’t need to take a wild swing at the ball. This is very hard to do when playing close to the table and the ball is coming to you fast.

Instead keep the stroke short. If you’re opponent is attacking, the ball will have plenty of speed already. So you don’t really need to add loads of speed yourself. Just work with the speed on the ball.

It’s fine to sacrifice power with this shot, because you will be rushing your opponent. This is the main benefit of this shot – it’s very quick. If you play the shot with early timing, the ball will often be past your opponent before he has had a chance to recover from his original attack. This is a thing of beauty when it works!

Counter loop further back from the table

Here’s a video of Ma Long, possibly the greatest player ever, doing lots of counter loops back from the table.

Note: Not all the shots in these videos are counter-loops. Look out for the points where Ma Long is back from the table and looping).

Ma Long really is a spin machine!

So to play a counter loop, this what you need to do:

• Step back from the table
• Have a bigger backswing
• Contact the ball at the peak of bounce or when the ball is starting to drop
• Spin upwards
• Your bat should finish up by your head

The key for this shot is to use a longer stroke with plenty of acceleration. As you are back from the table, you will need a longer stroke and some speed to get the ball back over the net and deep on your opponent’s side of the table.

If your stroke is too short or too slow, you won’t be able to get the looping spin on the ball and your opponent will find it easier to keep on attacking. But if you can get the heavy spin (loop) on the ball, it will kick off the table and give your opponent difficulty.

This is an all-body shot. As you can see from the video above, Ma long is using his legs, his waist and a lot of arm acceleration to get the speed and spin on the ball way back from the table. It’s high energy and athletic.

It’s a lot of fun playing counter loops and you can hit some spectacular shots. But it does take a lot of practice to get the footwork, timing and contact right.

Training drill

So how can you practice counter topspins close to the table and counter loops back from the table?

Here’s a simple drill you can do.

• You serve
• Your partner topspins, you block, your partner topspins again, you block again
• After two blocks, you counter attack the next ball (this could be close to the table or further back, whichever you want to practise).
• Play out the point

As you get the feeling of going from a block to counter-attack and your consistency improves, you could either block only once or don’t bother blocking at all. So you serve, your opponent topspins and you counter-attack the third ball.

It’s easier to begin with if your partner attacks to the same position, e.g. middle of the forehand side. But as you improve, you can make the drill harder by getting your partner to attack to different positions.

Take your game to the next level

As I mentioned at the beginning of the blog post, counter-attacking is a more advanced technique. Before you can counter attack effectively, you need to be able to have consistent spin shots first.

But if your strokes are already good, then counter-attacking can take your game to the next level. There is nothing wrong with a good block shot, but you can give your opponent even more trouble with devastating counter-attacks.

The post Learn how to counter-attack (and take your game to the next level) appeared first on Tom Lodziak Table Tennis Coaching.